1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to racks that support plastic bags and more particularly relates to racks associated with weight-sensitive, self checkout lanes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today's competitive market values efficiency. To thrive in the current market, businesses attempt to provide their customers quality service in a timely manner. One complaint customers frequently have against thriving businesses, however, concerns long lines at the checkout lanes. Customers do not want to wait to check out, especially if they are only purchasing a few items. Similarly, businesses do not want to hire too many cashiers or have too many workers standing idle. To balance the demand on the businesses and the number of available cashiers, many stores have implemented self checkout lanes that allow the purchaser to scan and bag their own items. Typically, a store assistant oversees several self checkout lanes, offering the customer guided assistance when needed.
Often, businesses have a limited floor area in which to implement self checkout lanes. As a result, manufacturers seek to minimize the size and/or footprint of the checkout lanes to correspond to the available area. Checkout lanes with a small footprint consequently enable businesses to provide multiple self checkout lanes in a small, selected area. Thus, a single store assistant is able to see and manage a large number of checkout stands at a time. Furthermore, a greater number of customers are able to take advantage of the self checkout option, which reduces the customer wait time to checkout their purchased items.
To prevent fraud, self checkout lanes typically include a product identification system to verify that the product scanned and the product bagged match a description of the product in a database. In certain self checkout lanes, the customer places scanned items in a bag supported by a bag rack attached to a scale. The scales can be extremely sensitive, capable of measuring a product within 1/100th of a pound. A processor compares the weight of the scanned product against a product's weight stored in a database. If the weight measured does not correspond to the weight stored, the computer will reject the item and stop the checkout process, until either the measured weight is rectified or a store employee overrides the system. Thus, the weight-sensitive verification system prevents customers from scanning one item and bagging a different item (often more expensive than the scanned item), or bagging an item without scanning the item.
Acquiring an accurate product weight, however, can be problematic in certain instances. In smaller checkout lanes, the space surrounding the scales can be very limited. Products often lean against the walls of the scaling area, causing the scale to register an invalid weight. Also, items in a bag shift and fall, or a bag is overfilled, causing erroneous scale readings as well. Other disturbances, such as wind or interference from the handles of a bag supply against scale area walls, can also cause rejection of scanned items, thus stopping the checkout process. Consequently, the store assistant must intervene, which slows the checkout process and increases the customer wait time. Frequent stops because of registered weight differences ironically can require the store to provide additional personnel to work at the self checkout stations, which defeats certain purposes of implementing a self checkout lane.
To alleviate the problem, some product verification systems accept a scanned product weight within about a pound of the weight stored in the database (i.e., very high tolerances). This solution reduces the need for frequent customer assistance; however, the compromised verification system does not accurately determine whether the scanned item indeed matches the bagged item. Another proposed solution increases the size of the checkout lane in order to allow room for the scanned items to settle without resting against any wall surfaces. This solution nullifies the benefits of providing a checkout lane with a small footprint.
From the foregoing discussion, it should be apparent that a need exists for an apparatus, system, and method that facilitates product weight identification in a self checkout lane, particularly in a self checkout lane with a small footprint. Beneficially, such an apparatus, system, and method would retain the scanned items in a predefined area to prevent disturbances that inhibit indentification of an item. The apparatus, system, and method would allow a sensitive scale to accurately weigh and verify a scanned item. Furthermore, the apparatus, system and method would prevent environmental influences, such as air flow, from influencing scale readings.